Ebola outbreak spreads to Sierra Leone

Several people reported dead near border with Guinea, in country's first outbreak of deadly virus.

26 May 2014 17:49 GMT

Ebola has killed more than 100 people since March, and has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent [AFP]

Sierra Leone has confirmed its first death from Ebola, with several more suspected to have succumbed to the deadly virus that swept across neighbouring Guinea earlier this year.

"I can categorically confirm that the Ebola sickness has materialised," said health ministry official Amara Jambai on Monday.

"Preliminary information received from the field indicates that one laboratory-confirmed case and five community deaths have been reported from Koindu chiefdom," the World Health Organisation said in a statement on its website.

Jambai initially said four cases of Ebola fever had been identified, but later clarified that while four people had died, only one person had so far been confirmed to have had the virus, the AFP news agency reported.

"Of the four deaths only one has been confirmed as dying from Ebola after two independent tests at the Kenema Laboratory Centre. The cause of death of the other three is still being investigated," he said.

More patients

Jambai said 11 people with acute diarrhoea and vomiting had been admitted to the Koindu community health centre in a region bordering southern Guinea.